Don’t expect beautiful music from Randy Owen when the subject is the Alabama Music Hall of Fame: “Obviously for me to see it like it is now, I really can’t think about it a lot, I get so angry,” the singer said recently.

Owen and his partners in the band Alabama have a lot to be happy about. They’re currently on the road celebrating 40 years of rich musical history. Their legacy is secure; no doubt they’ll be all smiles when they come to Orange Beach for a show at the Wharf on July 5.

The Hall of Fame is another story, however. Located in Tuscumbia, in the northwest corner of the state, it has fallen on hard times. State funding, which had been uneven since 2003, was cut off entirely in 2011. The Hall of Fame museum, which featured artifacts from Hank Williams and scores of other Alabama music-makers, had to close its doors. It’s been suggested that the collection might move to a new location, possibly in Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery or Tuscaloosa, where it could benefit from more tourist traffic.

Owen said his dissatisfaction goes all the way back to the 1987 state referendum that approved construction of the museum. He was one of a team of prominent supporters who barnstormed the state trying to make the case for the institution, he said. Given the state’s rich musical heritage, he felt like it should have been a slam dunk. “Yet it just barely passed, which was just very disheartening for me,” he said.

Alabama (the band) supported the museum with money, exhibit materials and more, he said.

“That’s really a real thorn in my side,” he said. “Alabama gave so much to that hall of fame, donations, all kinds of stuff, as well as did a lot of people. And it’s the best music hall of fame I know of anywhere. Or it was, when we had funding and everything for it.”

Owen said he sees a certain amount of hypocrisy in the political decision to axe Hall of Fame funding. For one thing, he said, Alabama and other music-makers have brought a fair amount of tax money to the state. “I would love to see that figure,” he said.

“Now there’s no funding for that,” he said. “But every damn time that one of these guys or girls run for office they want some musician to play for them, they want you to entertain people to help ‘em get elected.”

How mad is Randy Owen? So mad he’s willing to touch the third rail by saying that maybe this state is focused a little too tightly on football.

“We love football in Alabama. So we play football, and that’s about it,” he said. “And nobody loves football any more than me, but give us a few crumbs along the way.”

“I’m not blaming any one person. We’re all to blame,” Owen said. “From my perspective, I’m speaking for nobody but me, I wish that people in the state would just take a long look at how silly and how narrow-minded this thing has become with the Hall of Fame. We should have people out livid about how we treat musical heroes, and God knows we need some heroes.”